Rand Paul: Americans Could Be Sent to Gitmo Under ‘Indefinite Detention’ Bill

by Paul Joseph Watson

Senator Rand Paul told Judge Andrew Napolitano last night that Americans could be stripped of their rights and sent to Guantanamo Bay under the terms of the ‘indefinite detention’ provision of the National Defense Authorization Act set to be passed by the Senate this week.

Appearing on Napolitano’s Fox Business show, Paul said it perplexed him “how anyone could vote to send an American citizen who’s been accused of a crime to a detention center in a foreign land without due process”.

Paul has offered an amendment to the NDAA bill that would completely strip Section 1031 from the legislation, although it’s unlikely to pass following yesterday’s rejection of Senator Mark Udall’s weaker amendment that would have merely provided more oversight.

The Senator said that he had spoken with other Republicans who had pointed out the numerous instances where the Constitution specifically mentions the right to a speedy trial, habeas corpus and legal due process, all of which would be completely eviscerated with the passage of the ‘indefinite detention’ provision of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Republican supporters of the bill are citing Supreme Court cases to justify the provision that don’t even validate their argument. As Napolitano pointed out, even a saboteur for the Nazis during World War II was allowed to have a trial because he was an American citizen and had innate rights that could not be stripped away.

Napolitano also makes the point that this is merely an act of codifying into law what previous Presidents violated the Constitution to do anyway, specifically under the “parallel legal system” initiated under the Bush administration, “In which terrorism suspects — U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike — may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system,” as the Washington Post reported in December 2002.

“I wonder how Americans will feel when they see troops in the streets on a regular basis, something no one now living has seen since it ended the last time in 1876,” said Napolitano, referring to how the bill characterizes the whole of America as a “battlefield” in which U.S. troops can freely operate and arrest American citizens.

Republican Congressman Justin Amash, another vehement critic of the legislation, also appeared on Judge Napolitano’s show last night to warn that the provision in the bill would inflict the same tyranny on Americans as under King George over two centuries ago.

“This country was built upon the idea of liberty and if we are fighting terrorism but destroying liberty in the process we’re not really accomplishing the goal of defending this country….American citizens should never be detained indefinitely without charge or trial at the discretion of the President – that is completely outrageous and my constituents agree with me,” said Amash.

Amash added that it would be a “travesty” to see the military engaged in law enforcement because that is “what our founders fought against” during the revolutionary war.